The salty air would increase corrosion and decrease service life. To help get the shot, since you have no live reference, just put a laser pointer next to the camera. Keep the dot on your hull and you are frame. But can it fly fast enough is still a valid and most important question. They would be excellent photos.

Nice video. I fly RC, too. I have all the stuff for an aerial camera setup including two spherical balloons, video downlink, six channel RC transmitter, pan and tilt on the balloon, etc.

By the way, did you notice that he is NOT using the GoPro fisheye lens? I was wondering why there was not the distortion that I have been whining about. (Yes I admit I have been whining. ) Then I saw on the third video he clearly labels it as a Go-Pro with the Sunex lens. I've seen forum posts on how to remove the Go-Pro lens and replace it with one of these. I think it's funny that you are responding to my bitching about the GoPro's distortion by showing us the nice video you can get if you replace that lens with one without the distortion. Seems to me this guy had the same issues with the Go-Pro that I am having, n'est ce-pas?

If you are going to use helium balloons for aerial camera, try to see if you can find a cigar or torpedo/blimp shaped one. Spherical balloons are not much good in any wind at all. If you can find a blimp shaped one with fins, it'll work much better. Trust me. I have thousands of bucks into this experiment.

You might also consider a kite for getting your aerials. Lots more stable than the balloon and you don't have to deal with helium. A kite has the added advantage that it will come down within recovery range if the string gets loose or breaks. you lose your balloons with your camera attached....well....hasta la vista, baby. They go up.

My comments about the "POV camera" pitch were meant in the interest of clarity and accuracy. Calling a camera a "POV camera" does not have anything to do with the technical specs, photo quality, or the fish eye, or the wide angle. When ANY camera is attached to a dog it becomes the camera that is taking the dog's POV. Sorry the concept seems to be so difficult to understand. A "POV" is a position in space, a perspective. A camera angle. It is NOT a specific type of hardware. A pinhole camera is a POV camera if it's being used to illustrate a film character's point of view.Thats like saying if the fader in a bulldogging contest is riding a paint, then paints are re-defined as 'fader horses'. Doesn't work that way.

And it doesn't matter HOW long I have been using it. It still distorts the view. I suspect that a month from now, it will still distort the view.

Anyhow, I am hoping that we can attach the Go-Pro to the dog's life jacket today and see if using this approach will take some of the 'wobble' out of the dogs POV. ha ha. Problem is that it's blowing 20 kts. right now, and I have to take it all to the lee of an island somewhere looking for calm water.

I should have chosen a better word than "oriental." My Canon camera is made in the orient and it's a gem. So again, a bad choice of words on my part.

Duke Ellington once said, "If it sounds good, it is good." I think you can say the same thing about how something looks. Regardless of how the specs of the little camera appear, the photos and videos it takes don't look very good. A disposable Kodak film camera will do a better job on stills. My iPhone takes a much better video. Much better.

Having said that, I own a GoPro and use it. The attachment system which the company designed for the camera is unique and rather clever. No other such device, of which I'm aware, has the array of attachments that the GoPro does. That's the selling point. I am hoping that the company will eventually source a better camera to go along with their fantastic attachments.

Tom,I have to disagree with you. The photos and video from my GoPro HD can't be compared to a disposable camera. They look superb on a HD TV.I'm wondering if we are talking about the same GoPro? You do have the GoPro HeroHD? Not the original Hero which was standard definition and did not have very good image quality.

I think it's funny that you are responding to my bitching about the GoPro's distortion by showing us the nice video you can get if you replace that lens with one without the distortion. Seems to me this guy had the same issues with the Go-Pro that I am having, n'est ce-pas?

My comments about the "POV camera" pitch were meant in the interest of clarity and accuracy. Calling a camera a "POV camera" does not have anything to do with the technical specs, photo quality, or the fish eye, or the wide angle. When ANY camera is attached to a dog it becomes the camera that is taking the dog's POV. Sorry the concept seems to be so difficult to understand. A "POV" is a position in space, a perspective. A camera angle. It is NOT a specific type of hardware.

I understand about POV shots and yes you could use any camera with varying degrees of success depending on the subject. However the photographic industry clearly recognises a specific type of camera as a POV. Walk in to any camera shop and ask for a POV camera. You will be shown GoPro's, Contours, Vio's, Drift's etc etc etc. It's a special class of camera unlike compacts, point and shoots, DSLR and so on. A POV camera is very small, lightweight, able to be worn on the body and with a wide angle FOV that approximates the human FOV.If you bought one of these POV cameras hoping to use it as a compact you would understandably be disappointed. That is not the POV camera manufacturers fault though.

And it doesn't matter HOW long I have been using it. It still distorts the view. I suspect that a month from now, it will still distort the view.

Of course it will always distort the view. It's a POV camera. I was hoping with time you may work out how to get the best from your GoPro. The pole mount works well, as does a tripod mounted back near the rudder. My "Change of Pace" and "Broughton Island" clips were tripod mounted and filmed on R3 the best setting IMHO. R3 has less 'jello wobble', is smoother and has the added advantage of 60fps for slomo edits.

PSThanks for the info regarding the balloons and aerial photography. Good stuff.

Last edited by stringy on Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

The distortion of the GoPro can be minimised by keeping it pointed as straight as you can to the horizon. This clip shows why it makes a great supplementary camera to give a good overall view but won't replace a conventional camera. I like how you can set it and forget it and it will record 2+ hours (or double that with the new battery pack).In R3 mode at 60fps you can get clear slomo in editing but it's difficult to see clearly Port Stephens' local inhabitants that appear at the end.

Great clip Stringy. You finally got to video that Dolphin you missed down at Jervis Bay That must be the ideal spot for them near the mouth of Port Stephens. I've seen them there myself but alas no camera.

How did you have the GroPro set up for this clip ? It's off center this time. Did you have it mounted on the 'Leaning Tower of Eiffel'

Thanks for that Slaughter. You mean those dolphins at JB that spooked Jase by getting so close to his AI! He was worried about hitting them I recall.We were going a bit quicker at Port Stephens so we only got a glimpse and Kathy missed getting a pic with our old Canon Ixus.Yeah -the GoPro was mounted on the leaning Eiffel Tower which I've fitted to the TI as well.

We continue to try to figure out the best ways to use this camera. We have been having such a fogging problem that I've been using the time lapse, interval shooting mode. In video mode, it fogs up completely within 15 minutes. In interval mode, I have been able to take up to 1200 shots before the battery died.

Here's the first interval mode, on the top of the mast ( hence all the motion) with the stock 5 second interval. This was a picnic trip, complete with beaching.

La Gringa ran the 1200 stills together into a movie, its kinda bizarre, but it was a starting point. Can't shoot video because of battery heat and fogging, so stills it is, for now.I think the soundtrack helps:

The explanation of what we were doing etc. is all on the blog, but I thought I would show you what we are doing with the Go Pro.

After that, I lengthened the interval to 30 seconds, and with the GoPro on a tripod, once again we turned a series of stills into a movie.A squall line coming over the house one morning:

There are no GoPro outlets in the country where we live, but last week we were up in Austin for the 4th of July, and I managed to snag a couple sets of the new anti-fog inserts at a Best Buy ( the only two sets they have) on the way to the DFW airport. So, hopefully, I can control the fogging now and get back to playing with videos.

I've got some good stuff with the camera on the dog's life jacket. It stabilizes it somewhat, and takes out some of the 'floppiness' we see on other dog cams.Working on editing some of that now, should have it posted on the blog in a few days. Does anyone know if these inserts change color or otherwise tell you when they are saturated?

I own a new 2011 GoPro Hero HD model. I have run the camera for stretches of more than one to 1 1/2 hours without any fogging. At what temperatures are you getting fogging? Most dew comes from a noticeable drop in temperature. I also own several underwater cameras in UW housings and have not had any condensation except when I ice-dive.

This one fogs up within 15-20 minutes of turning it on and buttoning it up in the housing, if it's in video mode. It did it on the sailboat mast, and twice I've tried it mounted on the dog, and once walking on the beach. Every time.

In this case, it's fogging up with a temperature increase inside the housing. The ambient temps here are just about always in the mid to high 80's. The sea temp is around 80 as well. We don't have huge changes.

However, the GoPro gets warm inside the housing, probably due to a combination of solar and battery discharge. I did get over three hours with it in interval mode. But never over 20 minutes shooting video.

I ran a two hour sunset video a few days ago with the anti-fog inserts in it and they seemed to help in that situation. Of course, there was not much solar to heat it up in the housing that time of day.

Another question, I saw that the r3 mode is supposed to be good for slow motion playback, at 60 fps. When tried that, the playback is normal speed. So does that spec mean that it plays back in slow motion if you have video processing software to slow it down? Which you can do in any mode. I guess I am not yet seeing any difference in 30 fps vs 60 fps in playback, and I would expect to.

I just ordered a replacement flat lens for my Gopro hd. Maybe it will arrive this week and I will post the results back here I want it to give clear undistorted results underwater as the fish-eye lens produces fuzzy shots. I found the flat lens replacement kit on eBay.